Obamacare Repeal Off the Table Until After Elections

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., joined at left by Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks to the media on Capitol Hill in on July 17, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) — “Not any
longer.” With that, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to
close the book Tuesday on a divisive Republican debate, persuading President Trump
to shelve plans to replace the Affordable Care Act until after the 2020
election.

“I made it clear to him that we were
not going to be doing that in the Senate,” McConnell told reporters.

It was a rare public disclosure of private
counsel from the Republican leader. And it signaled that, after two years in
Trump’s Washington, Republicans on Capitol Hill are figuring out how to handle
the president and his impulsive swerves on policy.

Trump insisted Tuesday it was his idea to
switch course.

“I wanted to delay it myself,”
Trump said during an event at the White House. “I want to put it after the
election.”

Facing a court deadline, Trump seized on
health care last week, backing a lawsuit seeking to strike down the Affordable
Care Act. Trump’s motivations were as political as they were legislative. He
didn’t want to cede the issue in the 2020 campaign, according to a person
familiar with the conversations who was not authorized to speak publicly.

“We’re going to keep the presidency,
and we’ll vote in the best health care package we’ve ever had,” he said.

Trump and McConnell had not spoken for
days. The president stunned Republicans last week by announcing he wanted to
try again to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, insisting that
Republicans could become the “party of health care.” Republicans
wanted no part of a do-over after their failure to replace the law in 2017.
Facing a revolt from the ranks, McConnell told the president he needed him to
listen, according to a person who was granted anonymity to discuss the private
call.

McConnell explained to Trump that senators
are open to tackling specific aspects of health care — namely, trying to lower
prescription drug prices. But Trump’s promised big, new health care bill wasn’t
going happen with Democrats running the House. Instead, Trump could focus on
the issue during the election.

Several times McConnell told Trump to
listen, the person said. And it worked. Trump told McConnell he
“accepted” the situation and “would be developing a plan that he
would take to the American people during the 2020 campaign.” That night,
Trump tweeted as much.

“So we don’t have a misunderstanding
about that,” McConnell said Tuesday.

Trump’s shift — he tweeted late Monday that
Congress will vote on a Republican plan after the elections “when
Republicans hold the Senate & win back the House” — made clear that
the health care debate will be left for voters to decide during the race for
the White House.

That arrangement suits Democrats just fine.
They are denouncing Trump’s attempt to overturn the ACA in court and floating
various health care plans, including an expansion of government-funded Medicare
with so called “Medicare for All,” setting up a stark contrast
between the parties for the campaign trail.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said
Trump will “hold Americans hostage through 2020” on an issue that
affects millions of people. He said that Trump “insists he has a magic
plan that we can see if only the American people re-elect him.”

After Trump dropped the issue on
Republicans last week, many hoped it would just go away. They had no
comprehensive proposal to replace the ACA law and no big plans to unveil one.
Publicly and privately, Republicans tried to talk to Trump.

McConnell has made it clear Republicans
should spend their time attacking “Medicare for All” proposals rather
than revisiting the ACA debate, according to a Republican granted anonymity to
discuss the private thinking.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a Trump
confidant, called shifting the debate to 2021 “a very pragmatic
decision.” He said Tuesday that “spending quality time to develop a
comprehensive strategy” would be “critical.”

Trump’s effort to repeal former President
Barack Obama’s 2010 health care law narrowly failed in the Senate in 2017 when
Republicans controlled both houses of Congress. He still blames the late Sen.
John McCain for joining other senators to oppose a last-ditch plan.

While Republicans gained Senate seats last
fall, Republican senators — particularly those up for re-election next year —
weren’t looking for another fight over the law. They saw how the issue played
in 2018, when Democrats made it the cornerstone of their successful drive to
win back the House.

Preserving health care protections, especially
for people with pre-existing conditions, resonates with voters. According to AP
VoteCast, a survey of more than 115,000 midterm voters nationwide, nearly 4 in
10 Democratic voters identified health care at the top of a list of key issues.

As Democrats have blamed Republicans for
trying to end the ACA, Republican-backed challenges to the 2010 law are making
their way through courts.

Last week, the Trump administration told a
federal appeals court it wants the entire Affordable Care Act struck down, an
outcome that could leave millions of people uninsured.

In his late-Monday tweets, Trump claimed
Republicans are developing a plan with cheaper premiums and deductibles that
“will be truly great HealthCare that will work for America.”

Republicans appeared relieved that, for
now, that battle will be fought during the campaign, rather than in Congress.

The No. 2 Senate Republican, John Thune of
South Dakota, said the president “has some big ideas and, to his credit,
wants to solve problems.” But Thune said, “you run into that wall of
reality,” of a divided Congress with Democrats in control of the House,
which requires bipartisanship.

“Trying to convey what the obstacles
are to getting what he wants to get done in the next two years is something I
think a number of our members conveyed to him,” Thune said.